{"id":1214,"date":"2024-06-07T23:13:57","date_gmt":"2024-06-07T23:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/judge-weighing-motions-to-dismiss\/"},"modified":"2024-06-10T17:39:09","modified_gmt":"2024-06-10T17:39:09","slug":"judge-weighing-motions-to-dismiss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/judge-weighing-motions-to-dismiss\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Weighing Motions to Dismiss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

\n\tA California judge presiding over a sex trafficking case that was brought against Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) CEO\/executive chairman James Dolan<\/strong>, the Azoff Companies and Harvey Weinstein<\/strong> in January is weighing several motions to throw out the lawsuit, with a decision expected to be announced as soon as early next week. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAttorney Douglas Windor<\/strong>, a high-profile litigator who represented Casandra Ventura (a.k.a. singer Cassie) in her since-settled sex trafficking lawsuit against Sean \u201cDiddy\u201d Combs, filed an explosive lawsuit in January on behalf of Tennessee massage therapist Kellye Croft, who alleged that Dolan and an employee of Azoff Music Management conspired to traffic her to California to have sex with Dolan \u2014 who in turn allegedly trafficked her to Weinstein.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tRepresenting Azoff Companies is powerful New York litigator Daniel Petrocelli<\/strong>, partner at O\u2019Melveny & Myers LLP, who has represented Donald Trump<\/strong> and Travis Scott. Dolan is represented by Danya Perry<\/strong>, a former assistant U.S. attorney and ex-chief of litigation at MacAndrews & Forbes. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tPetrocelli and Perry have each filed separate motions to dismiss the case,\u00a0which is being handled by Judge Percy Anderson<\/strong>, while Perry has issued a blanket denial of Croft\u2019s claims against Dolan.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCroft alleges that she was hired to work with the late Glenn Frey in October 2013 while the vocalist and Eagles frontman was touring with the band and opening act JD and the Straight Shot, which is led by Dolan. Croft alleges that Dolan befriended her during the tour, gained her trust and then sexually assaulted her before coercing her into a sexual relationship while on the road. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tTwo months after returning home to Nashville in the wake of the tour, Croft alleges she was contacted by an executive at Azoff Music Management and hired to work as Frey\u2019s masseuse\u00a0for the Eagles\u2019 six-night run of concerts at Kia Forum in Los Angeles. When Croft arrived in Los Angeles, she learned that he was staying at a different hotel than the band \u2014 leading her to suspect that she was really hired by Azoff Management as a favor to Dolan. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMs. Croft did not perform a single massage on any member of the Eagles while working at The Forum,\u201d Wingdor writes, alleging that \u201cin reality, Ms. Croft was flown out to Los Angeles for the purposes of engaging in unwanted sexual acts with Dolan.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tCroft also claims that\u00a0she was\u00a0set up by Dolan, allegedly with the help of two Azoff employees, for an encounter with Weinstein, the disgraced film producer and convicted rapist, during her stay at the Peninsula Hotel in Beverly Hills. Croft says she was confronted by Weinstein in an elevator and allegedly offered a job on the set of an upcoming film \u2014 only to later be\u00a0sexually propositioned by the film producer, who then followed her to her room and sexually assaulted her, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

\n\tDolan\u2019s relationship with Weinstein dates back to 2003 when Dolan and Weinstein were part of an investment group<\/a> \u2014 which also included<\/a> financier and convicted sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein<\/strong> \u2014 that was hoping to purchase New York magazine.\u00a0Dolan also briefly served on the board of The Weinstein Company starting in 2016. <\/p>\n

\n\tCroft allegedly decided to file the lawsuit after Dolan sent her the lyrics to \u201cI Should\u2019ve Known,\u201d a song he wrote lamenting his failure to stop Weinstein from victimizing women.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIn April, Perry filed a motion to dismiss Croft\u2019s lawsuit, arguing that even if the woman\u2019s claims were true, she still\u00a0can\u2019t sue Dolan under the Trafficking Victims Protect Act because \u201cthe bill targets and criminalizes sex trafficking, not sexual relations (which is all that is alleged in (Croft\u2019s complaint),\u201d according to the motion. Wigdor responded in a separate filing that Perry\u2019s reading of the law was \u201cwrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs to the Weinstein allegation, Perry is arguing that Dolan and other former Weinstein Company board members were already released from any claims \u201cto alleged sexual misconduct by Weinstein\u201d during 2018 bankruptcy proceedings. Wigdor countered that Croft \u201cdid not consent to waive her claims\u201d and wasn\u2019t aware of the bankruptcy.<\/p>\n

\n\tPetrocelli\u2019s motion to dismiss argues that Croft\u2019s complaint \u201ccontains no facts suggesting the Azoff Entities participated in, benefitted from, or even knew about any sex trafficking scheme\u201d when hiring her. Petrocelli also wants Croft and her attorney sanctioned for filing the lawsuit and is asking that Croft be required to pay Azoff\u2019s legal costs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe motions have been taken under advisement by the judge, who late last week canceled a Monday (June 3) hearing for oral arguments on the motions, noting the \u201cCourt finds this matter appropriate for decision without oral argument.\u201c His ruling is expected any day. \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California judge presiding over a sex trafficking case that was brought against Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE) CEO\/executive chairman James Dolan, the Azoff Companies and Harvey Weinstein […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1740,1731,1743,1739,1737,1746,299,1742,1741,1747,1745,1748,423,1752,1736,1732,1733,1735,1734,1724,35,1738,1744,1723],"class_list":["post-1214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-bar-association-news","tag-case-law-analysis","tag-civil-rights-cases","tag-corporate-law-news","tag-court-rulings","tag-criminal-law-updates","tag-dismiss","tag-employment-law-updates","tag-environmental-law-news","tag-family-law-cases","tag-immigration-law-updates","tag-intellectual-property-law-developments","tag-judge","tag-judge-weighing-motions-to-dismiss","tag-legal-ethics","tag-legal-precedents","tag-legal-reforms","tag-legal-technology-advancements-legal-education-updates","tag-legislation-updates","tag-motions","tag-personal-injury-cases","tag-supreme-court-decisions","tag-tax-law-changes","tag-weighing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1214"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1214\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}